Mike Irene: Music from NYC to Central Texas

An Interview with Mike Irene, a local musician in Leander, Texas.

Tell me about yourself. Why did you choose to study music?

My Father is a musician who grew up in Rochester, NY. He got to know and play with Chuck Mangione way back in the late 50's before anyone knew who Chuck was. He eventually chose a family life in 1962 when he married my Mom and they both became Phd's in education. I remember my Dad sitting at the dinner table telling my Mom about all the morons he had to work with when I was a kid and I always thought "there's no way that I will be in that position."

When I was 6 years old Dad took me to see The Buddy Rich Orchestra. (If you don't know who Buddy Rich was you need to look him up on YouTube). I was blown away by the raw energy that Buddy brought to his performance and the incredible talent and skill he possessed. (You know, I think the drummer character on the Muppets, "Animal," was modeled after Buddy Rich). Anyway, that experience stayed with me forever. From that moment I knew that i would be a musician. I am truly one of the lucky ones. Many people never find what they really want to do and I knew when I was 6 y.o. A couple years later my folks took me to see Chuck Mangione. He was working a fresh, young drummer named James Bradley Jr. Again I was mesmerized by the energy of their performance. After the show, we went back stage to meet the band and the drummer gave me his sticks from the show. I began taking lessons and never stopped.

In school I was involved in singing with the choir. I was in Barber Shop Quartets, the lead in our musicals, earned a number of solos and really enjoyed exploring emoting through voice. I attended Berklee College of Music and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1993. From there I moved to New York City where I trained on and master digital audio platforms like Pro Tools. My career was pretty fun. I produced song parodies and comedy bit for a large radio network during the day and played around town at night with various original bands. I had a lot of energy.

I left New York in 2001 to move to Central Texas and marry my wife who is from Dallas. Man, that's 11 years ago?

How did Mike Irene Music begin? What led you to teach classes?

Necessity is still the mother of all invention. I never thought that I would want to teach. I don't think I would want to teach in a "traditional" class room setting. I started with the local school districts as a private teacher for band percussion students. From there I earned positions at a couple of privately owned music schools. Then, in 2007, shortly after our new baby girl was born, I made the decision to pursue money and a so called career. I worked for a corporation selling music programming, sound systems, etc, to businesses in Central Texas. I actually got pretty good at it too. Did that until spring of 2011. After many months / years of questioning what I was doing for the world, I quit. I jumped and expected the net to appear and it did.

When I officially started Mike Irene Music I had already had a handful of students who had been working with me since 2005. (I was still teaching out of my home while pretending to be a full time corporate puppet). I planned for at least 6 months of starving and depleting our savings but only experienced 1 month of that. Today I have 40 students that work with me every week and it has become a joy that is exponentially greater than I had ever imagined. The opportunity of building relationships in life is what I strive for. To know that I could influence some one's life through music is a true gift.

Other than in your classes, where/who do you play (with) professionally?

As you know, I have a wife, a child and a mortgage to consider so, I have to play gigs that pay really well. Thankfully, I do. Primarily, I work with a band called The Grooves (thegrooves.net) and have know the leader for 10 years. We play corporate parties, fund raisers, and weddings about 85 times per year. This is a great band and a great group of people. We are a close knit group which is rare in this circuit. I also get called by The Picture, The Sophisticates, and Wall Street as a sub.

I know you're going to SXSW, what will you be up to? Where can BermudaQuest readers find you?

Yeah, that was a bit of a surprise. I'll be playing with The Silos at SxSW at the following showcase events:

Wednesday, March 14 Austin, TX at Guitartown/Conqueroo Party at The Dogwood
715 West 6th Street
Austin, TX 78701
The Silos at 4pm
Thursday, March 15
Austin, TX at South Austin Brewing Company
415 East Saint Elmo Road
Austin, TX 78745
(512) 968-8297
The Silos at 8:30pm
Saturday, March 17 Austin, TX at Yard Dog
1510 South Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78704
The Silos at 12:30pm

I've never played with them before or even met them yet. The gig opportunity was a referral. It'll be fun to play with new people!

Do you think music is important to culture? If so, how are you bringing cultural awareness to music? How can BermudaQuest help increase music awareness?

I have this quote on my website (www.MikeIreneMusic.com): "The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of the Nation, is close to the center of a nation's civilization." - President John F. Kennedy

We are not fully human if we do not choose to express ourselves. For me, it's music. I can play a minor 7 chord and feel it. We all feel it whether we know it or not.

There is so much data that supports music in emotional and brain development. Every one, at every age will benefit from music. Listening, experiencing, or playing music makes us more human, it is part of our growth. I have a student in her 50s who came to me because she doesn't want to end up like her Mother who is suffering with Alzheimer's disease. The studies show that learning music can help her to live longer and better.

Regarding cultural growth, I always found it interested that a song could be so overtly against or for an idea to a point that could be insulting to many people in our p.c. culture yet very few are writing their congress men and women about it. There is a freedom in music and art that allows us to say what we think and illustrate how that thought makes us feel inside with such detail yet within a typically cryptic context. I heard someone say that we become infatuated with the melody of a song and then fall in love with the lyrics or meaning of it.

With my students, I give them freedom to decide on a song that they want to learn, then I expose them to music from bands like XTC or Elliott Smith or James Blake. I try to open their eyes to something new. We listen and discuss what a song is about. What is the writer saying and how can we interpret their idea in a meaningful way to ourselves and our audience? I love to see the students reaction to the revelation that music is much bigger than we understand. I've had a couple tearful moments with students in discovery of a piece of music. True emotion.

It's extremely powerful stuff. We, as artists, can, have and will bring social awareness to people through music in a way that our "leaders" could never accomplish. We, as artist, have a responsibility to interpret and expose what we see and experience in day to day life. People tend to seek out our differences while art must display our commonalities. We are all so much more connected and important than we will ever know. I fell in love with music based on an understanding that we are all the same in many, many ways yet we are all different. We can acknowledge and embrace our inherited culture and contribute to it or we can fight it. Where do you want to spend your energy?

Additional thoughts: Through teaching I have learned a great deal about my craft and myself. This process is greater than I had ever imagined. I cherish the relationships that I have with my students and their families. The fact that I can make a living in doing what I love and find meaning through my influence in the world is an amazing gift. Thank you for sharing!

About the Author

I'm Melanie, the founder of BermudaQuest and an archaeology undergraduate at the University of New Mexico. I love writing about ancient and modern cultures. My goal is to make information about our origins available to everyone [in simple English!]